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| African Hawk Eagle with a Guineafowl kill |
Morning Drive
(Herold, Shadrack & Andrea)
Elephant (Breeding Herd) / Mbali - Mcau Road
Elephant (Breeding Herd) / Argyle West - Wild West
Elephant (2 Kambaku) / Peru - Shkari Road
Afternoon Drive
(Herold, Godfrey, Peter & Andrea)
Rhino (3 - mother, calf and male)
Buffalo (2 Daghaboys) / Motswari - Long Road
Elephant (Breeding Herd) / Jaydee - Vielmeter/Albert Cutline
Elephant (Breeding Herd) / Vielmeter - Martins Road
It was an elephant filled morning with Herold, Shadrack and myself each spending time with different elephants. The two bull ellies we found were very relaxed and the one nonchalantly ripped up a tree in front of us... all in a days work for an elephant! We had started with the local baboon troop trying to warm themselves up in the morning sunlight on the dam wall of Argyle.
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| Morning Sunrise |
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| Baboons trying to absorb the morning sun |
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| Springtime flowers of Cassia Abbreviata (Shambok Pod Tree) |
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| Using his trunk to get to the nutrient rich roots |
After a relatively relaxed morning, we headed back up north finding some good birds as well as a tree monitor lizard sunning himself. This was the first one I have seen in months, so it seems that our hibernating creatures are finally starting to show themselves.
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| Marabou!!!! |
With new guests in the afternoon, we started out heading south to follow up on the herd of buffalo seen earlier that day. We never quite got there! Two daghaboys were close to camp, this included "Stompie", our resident tailess buffalo who is looking old but still surviving. It was a lovely balmy evening and there was plenty of general game around to keep us entertained. I was desperately trying to get down south as by this point the three rhino had been found, yet we kept finding all sorts from warthogs and waterbuck to a wonderful herd of ellies walking off into the sunset.
By the time we got to the rhino, the sun had gone down - not great for photo taking but it was interesting to watch how the female is trying in vain to chase the male away. The calf is only about 8 months now and the mother is clearly not up for another one just yet so she gets irritable with the male's constant efforts and tries to chase him off! Persistent guy this one is.
After a quick drinks, we started back up north spotting a Side-Striped Jackal on the way - I had not seen one in months so that was great!
See you all again tomorrow,
Andrea
Andrea another great post - what great sighting and pictures.
ReplyDeleteHave a question - are the African Martial Eagle and the African Hawk Eagle the same bird - different names for the same bird ? Your main picture of the Eagle with the Guinea Fowl kill - I thought that was a Martial Eagle - very possible that I was misinformed
Thank you for the pics of the birds and the flowers. The flowers in particular are new to me as are some of the birds, although I do have my Roberts to hand. So please may we have more as they come out - it will brighten up the autumn and winter here in the UK.
ReplyDeleteJust love the Kudu (colour) and Warthog pics. Beautiful, Andrea.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the comments!
ReplyDeleteHi dilip; to answer your question, no, they are two different birds that superficially resemble one another with their colouration...both are brown with white, speckled undersides - the difference is that while the martial eagle has a dark brown chest, the african hawk eagle is white all the way to the head. The martial eagle is also much bigger, but that is lost in photos!
Hope that's helps,
Andrea
THank you Andrea for clearing my doubt - I hope I meet you when at Motswari on 28th September
ReplyDelete